My reaction to the documentary we watched today about Sara Baartman was one of disturbance. I think of all the stories, poems and tales I have read and listened to but this account is among if not the worse. The despicable way that young Sara was “tricked” into leaving South Africa and then put into a form of slavery is savage in itself. This young woman who left her country in order to better herself was treated upon arrival in England put on display like a wild animal. She was expected to draw in crowds by her different appearance and perform in a cage to make money for her “saviors”. I found this so sad and I felt not only contempt for her oppressors, audience, but myself included just for being among the white race. What a rotten display of ignorance! To debate her humanism and allow her to be the subject of prodding and poking to arouse a crowd and pull in money is disgusting. At least and at last after her death so long ago young Sara is at rest at her native home of South Africa. According to the website www.nathanielturner.com her skeleton and bottled organs were returned to her birthplace. This author says that Sara was “ portrayed as racially inferior and more specifically, the way black female sexuality has been portrayed as inferior” how sad to reduce a human being down to sexuality and the gender female down to an animal. We should learn from this women and her treatment not to ever allow this to happen again to anyone, anywhere, by anyone. The sad part is that it is still happening all around the world and even still here in the U.S.
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